The best-kept secret : Racine's Habitat ReStore

Jim Kitchak shows off some window trim: $15

You know those travel magazine articles extolling the virtues of "best-kept secret" places ... the kind of wonderful hideaways that are instantly ruined the moment the hoi polloi hears about them? Well, this is one of those stories; I've resisted telling you about this place for nine months -- keeping it to myself as much as possible. Now in the glow of the holiday season I've momentarily softened ...

Listen up: We're going to go shopping at a home store that:

-- has the best prices in town. (By far.)
-- uses all its revenues to help others. (I said all, not just a few percentage points of profits.)
-- has kept 150,000 pounds of debris from the landfill. (Eh?)

OK, that last point didn't excite me, either, although on reflection it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. And the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources gave $120,000 in grants for landfill reduction a few years ago.

But back to our main points: When it comes to price and philanthropy, you just can't beat the Habitat ReStore. Open just nine months, it's become a must-shop for its biggest fans, who are known to congregate by the loading dock and buy stuff even before it gets into the store.

Lois Solberg with two windows as big as she: $75 each

Racine's Habitat ReStore is now one of eight in Wisconsin. It gets all its merchandise for free -- from businesses that fail, from contractors with an extra this or that, from builders about to "deconstruct" a house willing to donate its usable pieces to someone willing to haul it away. And the Habitat ReStore passes those savings on to you!

--350 linear feet of cedar boards for $100
--two 90" tall, glass and mullion doors for $150 (the pair!)
--bathroom vanities, $40
--microwaves, $30 - $50
--a big double-door refrigerator, $200 (Ah, too late!)
--two baby grand pianos, $600 each (Oops, sold.)
--7' patio doors ($1,500 new), for $250

I could go on, but I see you reaching for your wallet and car keys. Too late! All those probably are already gone ... but there will be more bargains in the days to come.

They come in without fanfare or preannouncement. When I visited last week, I found Harold Solberg working his way through the last of four truckloads of millwork, trying to match one piece to another, packaging them for sale. "It's like sorting earthworms," he said, happily showing off seven wonderful, 16-ft. long pieces of crown molding.

Jim Kitchak, donation coordinator, pointed out the store's diverse inventory: the last of 1,800 paving stones, 1,200 bricks, copper plumbing, a six-foot combination kitchen center, perfect for a cabin or small apartment. He picked up a carved window lintel, and sighted down its length, assuring no warpage. "They're architectural salvage, $15 each. But when I showed them to one customer, he said, 'Are you kidding? It's $15 a foot at the store.' "

All these bargains are overseen by Lois Solberg, a tiny dynamo who served for 19 years on the financial committee of Racine's Habitat for Humanity before getting the ReStore underway last March. The store was seeded with a grant from the Racine Community Foundation, which bought a truck, and free use for a year of its 5,800 sq. ft. warehouse / retail store at 2302 DeKoven, thanks to the generosity of Johnson-Diversey and Jeff Neubauer. (Drive all the way to the back of the parking lot on the west side of the Kranz Building; the store isn't easy to find the first time.)

Habitat's main goal, of course, is to build houses for those who can provide sweat equity. Habitat volunteers have built 52 houses here, and have five under construction. First dibs on the donated merchandise goes to those houses -- gas stoves and gas dryers, say. But that doesn't begin to reduce the store's inventory.

All the Habitat ReStores in the region share with each other. The Gurnee store, for example, got 32 pallets of ceramic tile. Some of them ended up here. Gurnee also received 13,000 toilet seats from a closeout. Recalls Lois: "Jim brought back 60 and we thought we'd never sell them. They sold, so he went back and got 120 more, and then 180 more." ReStore sells them for $3 apiece.

Sometimes more work is involved. "I got a call on Thanksgiving Day," says Lois. "A house was being torn down in Salem; were we interested? By the next day I had a crew of 10 down there -- just (she snaps her fingers) like that! They brought back 30 doors, 10-inch baseboards, lintels, window trim, cabinets, flooring." The list goes on.

Harold Solberg sorting the last of four truckloads of molding

Lois brings out a contact sheet of photographs: a house in Ft. Atkinson the ReStore is about to "deconstruct." "It's a huge mansion that was offered to the Madison ReStore -- but they didn't want it!" She almost can't comprehend. (Madison's ReStore doesn't venture beyond the Dane County border.) The contact sheet shows wonderful detailing, grand stairways, banisters, French doors, chandeliers, a cast iron footed bathtub, wood grates, metal registers. Jim and Lois are like kids in a candy store.

A house in North Bay gave up a custom-made 16-ft. walnut bookcase (in just two pieces). When it was removed, the cabinet maker's sketched-out plan was found drawn on the drywall behind it. There have been two Jacuzzi tubs, Mission furniture, innumerable appliances. (Princess Pink oven and stovetop anyone?) Unlike many ReStores, Racine's sells furniture. "We didn't want furniture at first," says Jim; "We didn't want to be a Goodwill. But it sells."

"Every day," says Lois, "Jim and I look at each other and say, 'It's been a crazy day.' " On its best day, the store took in $2,000.

Habitat ReStores began in Toronto in 1991 and spread across Canada before coming down to the U.S. Madison's, at six years old, is Wisconsin's oldest. Milwaukee's is just six months older than Racine's. Sheboygan and West Bend also opened in 2007. And then there are Appleton, Plymouth and LaCrosse, the oldest from 2004.

Says Jim: "I've got a beef with all those home makeover shows; the ones that just sledgehammer cabinets and walls. We can use that stuff!"

It's clear that Jim (a retired teacher, he calls himself "Lois' lackey") and Lois are enjoying themselves. "We're having a ball," she says. The only argument they have is about prices: "That's a DD item," Jim says. He translates DD into Doomsday ... "That's when it will sell, Doomsday." Lois finishes the story: "And then it sells!"

So far, the ReStore has earned $85,000 for Habitat. Every aspect of the store is purely a volunteer effort. The store is open three days a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Finally, back to that figure of 150,000 pounds kept from the landfill. The ReStore has a dumpster out back, "We're very careful about what goes into it," Lois says. "It costs $200 each time it's emptied. We don't throw things away; we sell them."

In nine months, the dumpster has been emptied just once.